Featuring Second Life Homes

Whiskey Monday’s Rocky Precipice

An artist friend, Eupalinos Ugajin, offered his home space to be featured here, and I’ve been struggling with how to do it justice. I’ve visited a dozen times, trying to shoot photos, but photos just don’t work for his non-traditional space. His home requires video, and that is absolutely not my thing. I’m terrible at it, and after doing a couple of test videos I can say that I’m worse than I thought I was. And so, while working on this problem in my head, I’ve been puttering around my own home. It’s finally finished enough to show off a bit.

My home is the complete opposite of Eupalinos’ home. Mine is far more realistic and traditional. Photos work just fine. But if you’re really horny to see my house in the test video, here ya go. However, heads up, it may make you seasick. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Let’s just move on and pretend that video never happened, mmkay? On to the (quiet) photos! And while I talk about my home, I’m going to also be talking about this blog. Because they are related; try to stay with me here while I explain.

I enjoy the things I do in Second Life. I spend my time composing photos, chatting with friends, visiting art galleries and installations, and decorating my home. These are fun pastimes, which is what SL is for me and for most people I know. Sure, many people work in SL, but that’s not for me. I work plenty in the real world; in Second Life, I play.

When I decided to start blogging again, I chose a topic that I enjoy. I love to look around other people’s homes, in both lives. It’s great fun! And I enjoy blogging here. Most folks who blog in SL do it because they enjoy it. However, often blogs become less fun and more of a chore when rules or restrictions or expectations begin to put pressures on bloggers. There’s nothing fun about those, unless that’s your kink and if so – you should know this is a no judgement zone.

I have many kinks, but pressure surrounding my enjoyable pastimes isn’t one of them. And with blogging, those pressures can come from many sources. Some bloggers put that pressure on themselves, some creators have crazy expectations for bloggers, and sometimes the pressure comes from people who have expectations that can’t be met.

Look, here’s the inside of my house. I am so at home and comfortable here. It took me many hours to modify the build (The Catskills Lodge from Scarlet Creative), to decorate, and to endlessly tweak. I enjoyed that time. I consider it time well spent.

When we spend time doing something we enjoy, it’s good for us. It’s a battery charge and a boost to our creativity. When we have to spend time doing things we don’t enjoy, it’s a drain on both. Blogging shouldn’t be a drain. It should be fun. Unless it’s your job and then I don’t know what to tell you. Find your joy where you can.

This blog isn’t my job, and so it will last as long as it is enjoyable to me. There will be weeks when I blog nothing and weeks when I blog three homes – and there is nothing wrong with either of those. I appreciate every person who has offered their home to be featured here, and I hope to get to each of them.

I’ve found that some folks offer their homes and then have expectations about when or how they’ll be blogged. I can’t control someone else’s expectations and I won’t allow them to create pressure upon me here. I firmly believe in boundaries and this is one I’m setting here – if you expect me to blog your home on your schedule or according to your own viewpoint about how it should be blogged, you are setting unrealistic expectations. Please manage them yourself. This is just a silly, fun little blog. I’m going to keep it that way.

I often hang out in my SL home while I’m at work in RL. I work from a home office, and while it’s a lovely office, it can feel stifling when I sit here for ten hours at a time. Sometimes it feels like an escape to log in and park myself where I can see the water in SL. It’s soothing. I keep SL open on one screen while working on two others. This is generally the view I keep open:

I also spend a lot of time sitting at my SL desk. There’s something charming about being at my desk in both worlds. I’m not ashamed to admit that I feel a connection with my avatar and what she’s doing inworld totally has an effect on me in the physical world. I happily take advantage of this.

I am happy, in both worlds. I enjoy the time I am able to spend inworld, and when I’m there, this house is my sanctuary. Life is too short to add pressures where there shouldn’t be any. I’m not setting any unrealistic expectations about what I’m doing here and I hope you won’t, either. I appreciate you for reading my blog and offering up your homes. I’m looking forward to exploring them all.

I’ll leave you with a quote from Georgia O’Keeffe, a woman who I admire for both her art and her writing:

“Someone else’s vision will never be as good as your own vision of your self. Live and die with it ’cause in the end it’s all you have. Lose it and you lose yourself and everything else. I should have listened to myself.”

Your new home reminds me of the one you had a while back, but, even more personal than I remember. Easy living. And a very definitive style.
FYI, the longer you take to get around to my home, the better. My home is always a work in progress and that gives me more time to “play house” ! – Elora